ITEM04 C15-2024-0031 LATE BACKUP OCT14- IN SUPPORT — original pdf

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ITEM04/1-LATE BACKUP-IN SUPPORTOrganized 1973 OFFICERS Holly Reed President Cathy Kyle Past President Secretary George Edwards Treasurer BOARD MEMBERS Mary Arnold Joyce Basciano Joseph Bennett David Bolduc Sarah Cain Michael Cannatti Heidi Gibbons Craig Lill Blake Tollett WEST AUSTIN NEIGHBORHOOD GROUP October 7, 2024 Board of Adjustment, City of Austin Elaine Ramirez, Liaison RE: C15-2024-0031 Members of the Board: West Austin Neighborhood Group (WANG) conditionally supports the above referenced variance request filed by the Austin Area School for Dyslexics, Inc (Rawson Saunders) (R/S) with the following understandings and stipulations. In the spring of this year R/S and their contiguous neighbor Tarrytown Christian Church filed to rezone their entire tract of land from the SF-3-NP zoning district to the GO-MU-NP zoning district. WANG, recognizing overwhelming close by neighbor opposition to the rezoning request, asked R/S to explore the variance process in order to achieve their vision for the school. Over the decades, WANG has worked with several churches along Exposition Boulevard to allow for expansions of their campuses, all within the SF-3 zoning district: • C-15-2003-065 the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, a variance was granted to allow maximum impervious coverage requirements to go from 45% to 70%, maximum building coverage requirements to go from 40% to 50%, and a decrease of setback requirements for a through street. • C15-2006-059 the Westminster Presbyterian Church, a variance was granted to allow maximum impervious coverage requirements to go from 45% to 64% (existing) in order for the church to either replace or renovate buildings on the campus. • Tarrytown United Methodist Church- In 2010-2011, the close by neighbors, WANG and TUMC all worked in harmony to allow the church to reasonably expand their campus through the purchase of a residential home fronting on Exposition Boulevard and placing that property under their Religious Use umbrella without changing either the property’s underlying zoning district of SF-3- NP or changing the expanded campus’s Future Land Use Map (FLUM) designation, Central West Austin Neighborhood Plan (CWANP). In addition, in 2009 WANG worked closely with the Girls School of Austin to achieve a harmonious Conditional Use Permit in order for them to expand their campus. As for the application for variance under discussion, WANG recognizes the relevant hardships cited and can support the majority of, as amended, requests as follows: • On the request to increase the site development regulation maximum height requirement of 35 feet to 50 feet on the understanding that per the applicant’s “Height Exhibit”, that there will be a maximum building height of 40 feet on the west side of the property and the 50 foot maximum would pertain only to the delineated eastern side of the property, we can support the request to raise the maximum height on the western portion of the tract to 40 feet. On the as delineated eastern portion of the tract, WANG can only support a maximum building height increase of 45 feet rather than the requested 50 feet. The expectation here is that any building on the eastern portion of the tract would be 3 stories rather than 4 stories. ITEM04/2-LATE BACKUP-IN SUPPORT• • • • Allow the maximum building coverage requirement to go from 40% required to 60%. Allow the maximum impervious coverage to go from 45% required to 60%. Allow the minimum setback requirements for the front yard of the property to go from 25 feet required to 15 feet requested and the rear yard setback requirement to go from 10 feet required to 5 feet requested. This relaxation from the development code is supported only with the mutual understanding that the western side of the property will be considered its front yard only for this variance request. Currently for temporary addressing purposes the western side of the property fronting on Hillview is considered the front of the property; a permanent address to show Exposition Boulevard as the front of the property is mutually agreed upon. Once the address has been adjusted, the building setback along the Hillview side of the property will be 15 feet. Regarding a variance to LDC 25-2-832: a site must be located on a street that has a paved width of at least 40 feet (required) to 30 feet (requested) from the site to where it connects with another street that has a paved width of at least 40 feet (required) to 30 feet (requested) “in order to erect school buildings and structured sub-grade parking facilities in a SF-3-NP zoning district” WANG accepts this request for the street variance conditioned on access to the property being ONLY off Exposition Boulevard. Further, WANG’s conditional acquiescence of these variance requests should in no way imply approval of a parking facility to be accessed off Hillview Road. Rawson Saunders has been a long and valued member of our neighborhood. Their current need for renovations to their campus coupled with their vision for the future of the school may not be achievable when considering the property’s constraints, but we are respectfully asking the Board to grant the requested variances, with amendments, so that defined developmental parameters are in place. Sincerely, Holly Reed, President West Austin Neighborhood Group 2 ITEM04/3-LATE BACKUP-IN SUPPORTITEM04/4-LATE BACKUP-IN SUPPORTITEM04/5-LATE BACKUP-IN SUPPORTITEM04/6-LATE BACKUP-IN SUPPORTITEM04/7-LATE BACKUP-IN SUPPORT